Some B.C. MPs likely to support abortion restrictions

OTTAWA — A handful of B.C.’s 36 MPs will vote Wednesday in favour of a motion that is aimed at forcing Parliament to consider a new law to restrict abortion.

The motion is almost certain to be defeated due to opposition from Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the majority of his cabinet, as well as the NDP, most of the Liberals, and Green leader Elizabeth May.

“There’s no way it’s going to pass,” said Liberal health critic Hedy Fry, a physician and MP for Vancouver Centre.

Motion 312, sponsored by Ontario Conservative Stephen Woodworth, calls for the creation of a committee of MPs to consider when human life begins.

His goal, outlined in a speech in April, is to propose changes to what he calls the “dishonest” Criminal Code’s definition of when a child becomes a human being, which is at birth.

Conservative whip Gordon O’Connor, in outlining the government’s opposition to the motion in April, was blunt in assessing the implications of Woodworth’s initiative: “If the legal definition of when one becomes a human being were to be adjusted so that a fetus is declared to be a legal person at some earlier stage of gestation, then the homicide laws would apply.”

“As a necessary consequence, aborting fetal development anywhere in the potentially new adjusted period would be considered homicide. Thus the ultimate intention of this motion is to restrict abortions in Canada at some fetal development stage.”

Harper has made clear a government he leads will not bring in abortion restrictions.

Canada has been without a law since the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in 1988 that the previous law was unconstitutional.

B.C.’s 11 New Democrats, two Liberals and Green leader Elizabeth May, the MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands, are all committed to vote against the motion.

Harper’s senior B.C. cabinet member, Heritage Minister James Moore, is a social moderate and certain to vote against it.

Spokesmen for B.C.’s four ministers – Moore, Indian Affairs Minister John Duncan, Trade Minister Ed Fast, and Alice Wong, minister of state for seniors – wouldn’t say how the MPs will vote.

Fast and Wong are among a number of evangelical Christians in the 21-member B.C. Tory caucus.

There appears to be an opening for ministers to vote for the motion, since Immigration Minister Jason Kenney – one of Harper’s most powerful lieutenants and a devout Catholic – said this week he’ll back Woodworth’s initiative.

Veteran Tory MP Nina Grewal (Fleetwood-Port Kells) said through an aide that she’d vote for the motion, but offered no explanation for her position.

Three other Tory MPs have endorsed it on their websites – Colin Mayes (Okanagan-Shuswap), Mark Warawa (Langley), and Mark Strahl (Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon).

Other social conservatives in the B.C. caucus, such as James Lunney (Nanaimo-Alberni), Russ Hiebert (South Surrey-White Rock-Cloverdale), and Randy Kamp (Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge-Mission), did not respond to interview requests.

Cathy McLeod, MP for Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo since 2008, said this week she’ll stick to her election campaign vow to oppose reopening the abortion debate. That position was echoed Tuesday by rookie MP Dan Albas (Okanagan-Coquihalla), who said he shared Harper’s position when abortion was raised at all-candidates debates in the 2011 campaign.

“I have my own personal convictions but I think when an elected official makes a commitment as part of an overall series of commitments during an election I think the public expects people to keep their word, and that’s what I intend to do,” Albas said in explaining why he’ll vote against Woodworth’s motion.

“It’s a ‘backdoor’ step on a path toward re-criminalizing abortion, which, if achieved, will return Canadian women back to the days of illegal and unsafe abortions and deaths,” Murray said in an email.

Fry has argued that Harper has broken his pledge not to re-open the debate.

“Harper runs a tight ship,” she said Tuesday in an interview. “His discipline is such that neither ministers, nor backbenchers, are allowed to stray from script. So how did he allow this private members bill to get to the floor is my question?”

She said the motion was a “trial balloon” to satisfy the party’s base.

“Seeing the public response, he felt it politically wise to back off and let Mr. Woodworth take the rap.”